It's time to think about winding it up. This season of Six Feet Under has been a mixed bag. Prior to the start, the word was that things were going to be more lighthearted. There was going to be a lessening of the morbidity and a greater emphasis on life than on death. That turned out to be very true. There have been some truly humorous moments this year. And, frankly, it was a nice break from three seasons of life in the 'burbs with ghosts. But the downside is that we lost the core theme of life in the face of death that ran beneath the previous seasons. The net result being that this season can only be described as the sum of the plotlines, whereas the others (at least the first and third seasons, anyway) surpassed that.
The plotlines themselves were hit or miss. The relationship of David and Keith remains one of the most realistic ever portrayed from an emotional standpoint, and even the histrionic business of David's carjacking played OK into David's own insecurity in the face of aggression. But Keith working security for a Britney Spears clone and ending up having sex with her, and then his subsequent sex with some sleazebag to get David out of a lawsuit were really off the charts. Part of the success of David and Keith as a dramatic device depends on their being such a normal couple, except for the fact that they are both men. Their interaction is familiar yet heightened because you are concentrating on the roles each partner is playing since you can't make the same assumptions about personality that you would in viewing a heterosexual couple. Well, I don’t know any couples of any orientation, where one partner would sit in the living room while the other had sex with a stranger upstairs in the hopes that he would drop a lawsuit against them. But maybe that's just me.
Article comments
1 - Jim Carruthers
I just finished watching the season 4 finale, and was hating it. SFU, you used to be fun, clever, stylish, but this season, I wanted to slap most of the characters.
Then there was the final scene, and that really redeemed the season, though I dread the foolishness that the unresolved plot lines leave open for next season.
But I agree, five seasons would be perfect if they go into s5 to make one really good series instead of trying to drag it out to more.
2 - Bill Sherman
Pretty much agree with your assessment of this season's strong and weak points. I also personally liked the moment in last night's season finish where David confronts the crackhead carjacker: it avoided cheap and easy resolution, coming off much more realistic than, say, the absurd confrontation between Nate and his late wife's ex-lover.
But, as Jim notes, the show genuinely sings when it has scenes like David's talk with Dad Fisher.
A pretty cool death last night, too. . .
3 - Jim Carruthers
A pretty cool death last night, too. . .
But he's not half the man he used to be ... (don't blame me, Nate said that).